Composite structures may be understood as relatively solid materials or structures that may be composed of one or more substances, wherein the various substances may impart different properties to the composite. For example, composite structures may include multiple layers of the same or different materials bound together by an adhesive. Composite structures may be made by a number of methods, such as compression molding, resin transfer molding, spray-up, hand lay-up, sandwich composites, etc. However, some of these processes may be somewhat time and/or labor intensive.
Currently, helmets used for ballistic protection may be molded by compression type processes. Relatively high pressure may be used in the process to adhere the layers placed in the molds with the resin material and trim the helmet to its final shape while being molded, demanding tooling that exhibits relatively high hardness, which may be costly to produce. In this way, the tools may be designed to accommodate maybe only one product line. Furthermore, the cycle time for forming a helmet may be relatively long, such as up to 1 hr depending on the resin material used.